Cubes and Things - a set of 3D coloring books

The development of the basic cover design for the Cubes and Things books happened in stages, as I worked on communicating different aspects of this project.

The pile of shapes in the center came from a photo of actual shapes that I made and arranged into a nice composition. I used Illustrator to draw the lines of the shapes. In Photoshop, I warped the lines of the designs to give the feeling of perspective.

To show the transformation of the 2D net (the flat version of 6 squares arranged like a cross) into a cube, I again started with photos to work out realistic lines. Then I printed out the drawings and used colored pencils to get a rich texture that is easily recognized as hand colored.

I choose a font that looked playful, classic, and solid to express the fun of these forms that have been known for two thousand years, which are often called geometric solids.

The second page of the book is also in color to make it easier for people to spot the regular polygons appearing in different shapes. I rearranged these polyhedra from the watercolor diagrams used in Polyhedra: Eye Candy to Feed the Mind.

For those interested in learning about these fancy forms, there is a lot of information on this page. The arrangement shows off the many geometric connections between the shapes, which could inspire people to make them for a better understanding of the polyhedra.

Below is a page from the book that has a net with a design that emphasizes the fact that a dodecahedron has 3 pentagons at every vertex (the mathy term for corner). By staring at this image, you can get a feel for which broken sets of 3 olive like designs will come together when the form is made.

This book is in the form of a pad of paper, with the spin along the top. People can pull out the pages of shapes they want to make.

It was fun to thoughtful place the nets on every page. Also, I wanted a good composition because I knew there would be some people who would only color the pages in the book (not making the shapes) and I wanted each colored page to feel special.

Other people might want to just make the shapes (not do any coloring), so I made sure that the forms looked cool whether they were colored or not.